The UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) was awarded $40 million over five years to continue raising the standard of care and increasing access to services for children and their families across the U.S. who have experienced trauma.
Funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the NCCTS is responsible for the collaboration, coordination and leadership of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN).
The NCTSN includes 164 child trauma centers (expanded from 140 in 2022) and nearly 200 formerly funded affiliate centers and individuals. The network assists providers, family advocates and policymakers in understanding the importance of and implementing a comprehensive and trauma-informed approach to screening, assessment and treatment of trauma and other adversities.
Since 2001, the NCCTS has had a unique, bicoastal structure, combining the resources of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Duke University Medical Center. The NCCTS has taken a leadership role in child trauma policy, practice, research and training through public education, workforce development, improved access to quality treatment, policy analysis and education, development of effective trauma-informed evidence-based practices, and initiatives to address gaps in services for underserved children and special populations. (Source: NCTSN website)
The NCCTS is co-directed by Lisa Amaya-Jackson, MD, MPH, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke, and Jenifer Maze, PhD, in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. Ernestine Briggs-King, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, serves as the center’s associate director for diversity, equity, and inclusion and network relations. John Fairbank, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke, is the former co-director of the center and serves as senior advisor to the leadership team.
“Continuing the collaborative work at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress is a privilege staff at both UCLA and Duke take to heart.”
— Lisa Amaya-Jackson, MD, MPH
“Continuing the collaborative work at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress is a privilege staff at both UCLA and Duke take to heart: to be the organizational backbone for collaboration of a network of academic and community sites funded to provide trauma informed training, services, and resources for the different child-serving systems of care and for stakeholders in national policy, terrorism and disaster services, and those with lived experience on behalf of children and families across this country,” Amaya-Jackson said.